—David Menconi, Down on Copperline
Some five years into his career as cryptid Saxsquatch, things are pretty positive nowadays. This past month found Saxsquatch
everywhere from Chicago’s Riot Fest (on the same stage as Fall Out Boy, Beck, St. Vincent and Slayer, among many others) to Franklin Street in his Chapel Hill hometown, where he led a flash mob.
All of which is immensely satisfying, especially because things weren’t so great in his early days as Saxsquatch. He launched this phase of his new musical identity in 2019 with a series of YouTube videos and “Live From the Woods” performances on Facebook. But it took a while to catch on.
“It was really tough at the beginning – I mean, people really hated me,” he says with a laugh. “I was doing Saxsquatch as a labor of love, but making babies cry. Friends and even some family told me, ‘What you’re doing, we don’t like this. We think it’s weird.’ But I kept working at it, making new music, and it slowly caught on.”
Now 30 years old, Saxsquatch can be cagey about many of his biographical details. But a few details are known. He’s an Orange County native who attended Carrboro High School, although he claims not to have graduated because, “It’s tough for Saxsquatch to be accepted in high school.”
While he’s evasive about his pre-Saxsquatch exploits, he played blues-rock saxophone for a time in the Marcus King Band. If you ask him about that, however, all he’ll cop to is, “I know those guys well and they’re awesome.”
As Saxsquatch, he has built a solid online audience on various platforms with more than 3 million total followers (2.1 million of them on TikTok). He has recorded-music credits in high-profile computer games including “Fortnite” and “Rocket League,” and a growing number of memorable celebrity encounters. He appeared alongside John Oates doing a video cover of the old Hall & Oates classic “Maneater” a few years back, and also turned up last year on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” – in a “That’s My Jam!” name-that-tune game-show segment playing signature sax riffs by Daft Punk and George Michael.
“When I started,” Saxsquatch says, “I had two goals: to play ‘Fallon,’ and the Super Bowl. ‘Fallon’ happened, so next up is the Super Bowl.”
No surprise, he’s in-demand for parties, too. Saxsquatch customarily plays live saxophone with taped backing, plus copious visual aids – lasers, hemlock trees, visuals from a projector. Mention that it looks like playing in that Sasquatch costume would be difficult and he’s apt to protest, “It’s not a costume!”
“Once the CEO of Sony hired me to play his birthday party in the Hamptons,” he says. “Harry Styles was there, and I was playing his own song to him as we danced together. He told me I was rushing, but I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not because the British sense of humor can be hard to read. I left that one feeling a certain type of way, definitely.”
As to other mountains to climb (other than playing the Super Bowl), Saxsquatch says he’s “just going wherever this takes me.”
“I never know what will happen, so I’ll just go wherever the universe wants me to go,” he says. “I feel like I have a message that’s good for the world, and it can help people believe in each other. My goal is to help change perspectives for the better, for everyone to live life to the fullest. We were not put on earth to have a boring time. What I love about music is it brings people together to feel like they’re not alone. I need the connection of people to talk to, hug, have a good time with. When I’m done with this life, I want to say, ‘I did my best.’”
Saxsquatch’s next area appearance is the “Bigfoot Rave” on Saturday, Oct. 12, at The Fruit, 305 S. Dillard St. in Durham. Showtime is 8 p.m. and tickets are $20. For details, see DurhamFruit.com.
2019 Piedmont Laureate David Menconi’s most recent book, “Oh, Didn’t They Ramble: Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music,” was published in 2023 by University of North Carolina Press.
